Recent Posts

Effective communication is an absolute
requirement for successfully starting a business, but it doesn’t
come naturally to many entrepreneurs. Communication is considered
a social skill, and inventors and engineers, for example, are not
known to be social butterflies.

Founders have to communicate their ideas and products to
investors, business partners, and the rest of the team. Then,
hopefully, come customers, distribution channels, and going
public or merging with an attractive buy-out candidate.
Communication is not just talking, but also writing, body
language, and “actions speak louder than words.”

John Spence, in his book “Awesomely Simple” says that
the single biggest problem he has to deal with in client
companies worldwide is the lack of open, honest, robust, and
courageous communication. He narrows down the problem to the
following aspects of communication, and I agree:

Honesty. This element is without question the
most important in building strong communication in a startup.
The implementation is simple – just tell the truth all the
time, every time. It’s a lot easier than trying to remember
what you said the last time, and people notice quickly. Build a
culture of truth, and others will follow your lead.

Empathy. It is one thing to be honest; it is
another thing to be brutally honest. Tell the truth in a frank
and direct, yet respectful and empathetic, way. Shoot straight
with people, but don’t shoot them between the eyes. Body
language and sincerity are important here.

Courage. You need the courage to put even the
most difficult and challenging subjects on the table and lead
the discussion. Don’t wait until tomorrow, hoping the problem
will go away. Courageous means that team members have the nerve
and confidence to question authority, rather than dutifully
fall in line behind a bad direction.

Safety. If you want people to tell the truth,
you have to make it safe for them. Here is where your actions
speak louder than your words, and louder than any written
policies. If you obliterate someone for telling you the truth,
you will never hear the truth again. If you are caught in a lie
once, you will never be believed again.

Intellectual rigor. Although people should be
safe, ideas should not be. In an intellectually rigorous
culture, theories are tested, and people welcome, even
encourage, critical examination of ideas and information,
regardless of the source. The goal is for only the strongest
ideas to survive.

Transparency. The hallmark of great leaders
and organizations is that they share as much information with
all of their stakeholders as often as they possibly can, in
multiple contexts. Yet many leaders will tell me that they are
continually amazed to hear the common complaint “why didn’t
anybody tell me this was happening”.

Spence says that the best way to improve your organizational
communication levels is to improve your own interpersonal
communication skills. Luckily, these are skills that can be
taught and learned. It takes practice and hard work, but with
time, it is possible to greatly improve.

The key skills for superior interpersonal communications are
effective use of body language, focused listening, expert
questioning, using multiple sensory modes, providing both logical
and emotional arguments, and listening for ambiguous or
emotionally loaded words. But these are subjects for another day.

If you are one of those entrepreneurs who struggles with every
email you write, take heed of the importance of the basic
principles above, and take inspiration from the fact that you can
and will improve your skills, if you are willing to work at it.
But make no mistake about it, being an entrepreneur who does not
communicate is not an option. Start today, and do it every day.